Workers update past job descriptions to highlight AI skills amid changing workplace trends

A new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research, authored by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom and researchers at Stanford and Revelio Labs, reveals that workers are increasingly revising their LinkedIn profiles to add artificial intelligence-related skills. The study, which analyzed monthly snapshots of 29.4 million US LinkedIn profiles from August 2020 to January 2026, found that nearly a fifth of accounts had retroactively changed the title or description of a job they had already left. Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, the number of retroactive additions of terms such as 'AI,' 'GPT,' 'LLM,' and 'artificial intelligence' to previous roles has risen more than sixfold. The researchers dubbed this practice 'time travel' and those engaging in it 'time travelers' due to the nature of revisiting past roles. At the same time, the study noted a decline in the use of remote-work language, such as 'remote,' 'work from home,' and 'WFH,' with workers adding these terms about as often as they were deleting them by the end of 2025. This shift coincided with a wave of return-to-office mandates. Similarly, there was a sharp decline in the use of terms related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the start of 2025, aligning with President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting DEI programs. The researchers emphasized that workers are modifying their profiles to reflect what they believe employers value, with edits often occurring when preparing for a job change. The practice is particularly common in technology and information, where 31.6% of workers had retroactively edited an old role, compared to a study-wide rate of 19.7%. Arts, entertainment, and recreation followed at 25%, and professional, scientific, and technical services at 24.1%. The median edit occurred more than four years after the job ended. The paper also warns against treating LinkedIn profiles as a fixed record, estimating that a 2026 snapshot would overstate the prevalence of AI-related skills in 2022 by around 30%. The researchers concluded that while workers may not be exaggerating their AI experience, they are often adding details or reframing past work to align with current employer expectations. The study highlights how the job market is evolving, with the same roles being described in different ways to reflect new industry trends.